


Freaky Fifth Qintant

by Sandyclaws68



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Body Swap, Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, Hunk is a good bro, Kidgemas, Mutual Pining, Paladin friendship, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 04:52:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16612277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandyclaws68/pseuds/Sandyclaws68
Summary: It wasn't that Pidge couldn't admit her growing feelings for Keith, just that the current circumstances made it awkward, to say the least.Or the one in which Keith and Lance are not exactly themselves, Hunk goes with the flow, Pidge is pretty much over the whole "having feelings" thing, and Allura just wants things back to normal.





	Freaky Fifth Qintant

Pidge didn't feel even the tiniest bit of worry until the location beacon abruptly shut off.  At first she thought it was just one of the normal disruptions that happened around the largest planets; the massive gravitational pull occasionally played hell with delicate electronics.  But when over two minutes went by with without the signal being restored she felt anxiety start to crawl up her spine as she worked to figure out what else might have gone wrong.

“Pidge?” Shiro asked, sounding slightly nervous.

She quickly switched to another control station, opening up a data screen with a different system displayed on it.  “I. . . I don't know,” she stammered out. “I can't figure out what's going on.”

“Did one of them turn it off?” Allura asked, her voice calm as always.  She wouldn't panic until there was a damned good reason to.

“No, they didn't.”  That was the first thing Pidge had checked.  “This is definitely some sort of outside interference, but what, exactly, I can't tell.”

“Did you try the -”

Hunk's question was interrupted by the sudden screech of static and feedback over the open com system, a sound that set off the panic they were all trying to hold back.  “Get us moving to their last known location,” Shiro ordered, the corners of his mouth pinched tight. “Coran, get the particle barrier up and full power to the weapons systems.  Hunk -”

“On it.”  The order didn't even need to be given before the Yellow Paladin was moving to Keith's station to check the sensor logs.  Pidge watched him for a moment, a worried frown creasing her forehead, before turning her attention back to her own task of trying to restore contact with the Red Lion.  The problem was that without even the slightest clue as to what had happened she was working blind, so right now it was all in Hunk's hands.

“There was a quintessence surge near their last known location right before the beacon cut out,” he reported after about a minute.  “I can't tell what caused it, but it is definitely the source of the interference.”

Pidge let out an audible sigh of relief; she could counter the effect now and get them back in touch.  She was already at Lance's station so she had easy access to all of the communication systems, so it took less than a minute to re-calibrate the beacon.  The reassuring  _ beep _ started to sound throughout the bridge again, and everyone visibly relaxed.

“Hunk, do whatever you can to discover where that quintessence came from.  Pidge, can you get normal communications up and running?” Shiro's commands came quick and sharp.

“I can try, but that gas giant planet might still be a problem,” she replied, flipping through screens on the control panel.  “I need to do some compensating before -”

Feedback screeched through the system once again, and then Lance's voice sounded.  “It's okay, we're okay!” he all but shouted. “We're on own way back right now.”

“The mission?” Allura questioned.

“A mess,” Lance replied with an angry snort.  “We'll report in more detail later, but for now let's chalk it up as a failure.”

Allura sighed.  “Understood,” she said.  “Just come back in one piece and we can worry about the rest later.”

“Hey, Lance?” Hunk spoke up.  “Did you guys get a clear reading on that quintessence surge?”

“We sure did, and it's. . .”  The Blue Paladin laughed harshly.  “It's not exactly a simple thing. You'll understand when we get back.”  Then the communication cut off.

The five people on the bridge all exchanged looks, but it was Coran that finally spoke.  “What the  _ quiznack _ was that all about?”

****~**~**~**~**~****

Pidge was the only person waiting in the hanger when the Red Lion landed.  It was, after all, her job to see about assessing any damage the quintessence may have done to Red's systems and fix whatever she could.  At the very least she knew she'd have to check over the locational beacon on the Lion's end to ensure that the link between the feline and the Castle was working at peak efficiency.

The sound of servos pulled her attention back to where she was as Red's mouth opened and the ramp came into view.  The presence of Keith and Lance was not a surprise, nor was the fact that they were engaged in a wholehearted bickering match.  Used to it after the months they had been together Pidge simply ignored it, meeting them halfway to the cockpit. She simply grinned at Keith, rolled her eyes at Lance, and voiced a request.  “I need whatever Red has in her sensor logs, and access to the encrypted files,” she said as she continued up the ramp, fully expecting Keith to follow her; Red wouldn't let anybody near those files without him present.

She got a few steps closer to the cockpit before becoming aware of the whispered argument going on behind her.  It seemed to be largely dominated by Keith, which struck her as odd. She turned around to glare at her teammates.  “Is there a problem, gentleman?”

Keith started and a flush began to climb his cheeks.  “No, no. Nothing's wrong, right Lance?”

The Blue Paladin sighed in frustration and pushed a hand through his hair.  Pidge squinted at him; it was such a very un-Lance-like thing, as was the vaguely disgruntled expression on his face.  She felt a prickle of unease crawl up her spine as she looked from one to the other of her companions.

“Right, tell me what's going on right now,” she said.  Neither spoke up for a long moment, and she huffed out a sigh.  “Fine, don't talk. But this conversation isn't over; we'll get back to it once I've checked Red over.”  She pointed at Keith. “Now let's go.”

They didn't move beyond a quick meeting of their eyes.  “Keith?” she asked, staring at the darker-haired of the two, who rubbed his nose and looked sheepish.

“Yeah, about that. . .” Lance drawled.

****~**~**~**~**~****

“And you really have no idea how this happened?”  It was a measure of her disbelief that Allura was asking that question for the third time.

“Not a clue, other than that quintessence that I'm sure you guys also picked up on.”  The response came in Keith's voice, but with Lance's personality and attitude stamped on every word.  It was disconcerting, to say the least. “It was actually kind of cool when it happened. I mean, not cool-cool because I'm stuck with the mullet, but the magic, spell, whatever, was literally cool!  Like chilly, and -”

“Oh my God, just SHUT UP already!” Pidge shouted, shocking all the occupants of the medical bay.  She glanced toward Lance, who had a disturbingly Keith-like smirk on his face, before turning back to where Keith stood between Allura and Coran.  “Sorry, Keith,” she muttered. “It's just. . .”

“No worries,” Lance replied from behind her.  “It wasn't really me you were yelling at, anyway.”

Pidge shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose.  “This is really a little too weird, even for the pair of you.”

Coran made a vague noise of agreement.  “Well, the good news is that other than this. . . body-swap they're both in perfect health and uninjured.”  He glanced down at the portable med-scanner in his hand. “There's an abnormal amount of foreign quintessence in each of them from whatever that surge was, but it's not doing any harm, just sort of sitting there.”

“A Druid spell?”  Shiro put in, causing everyone to look his way.  “That would account for everything we're seeing, wouldn't it?”

“Yes, it would, but that creates a whole new set of problems,” was Allura's response.  “Namely how in the name of Alfor do we correct it?”

There was a vague hum of acknowledgment in the room before everyone's gaze jumped to Pidge.  Her eyes widened as she realized what everyone was thinking. “Are you all nuts? I'm the team tech expert, and you expect me to figure out how to fix a  _ magical _ problem?”

Hunk laughed.  “Well, see, that's the thing.  Because you are the most familiar with the technology of the Lions you come the closest to being the team's magic expert.”

She opened her mouth to object when a warm hand settled on her shoulder.  “You know better than anyone here how science and magic are tangled together in the Lions, so you're the best shot we have at figuring something out.”  The voice and hand belonged to Lance, but the sentiment was pure Keith, the sort of thing he would have said to encourage her in almost any other situation.  It was the sort of thing that had made her feelings for him undergo a change in recent weeks, and hearing the personality of the young man she was crushing on coming out of Lance's mouth was enough to push her closer to the brink of a major freak out.  She sucked in a deep breath, held it for a beat, then let out a gusty sigh.

“All right, I can see everybody's point.”  Keith's trademark smirk crossed Lance's face and she was tempted to smack it off.  “I'll start with what I was going to do before everything went to hell, with Red's sensor logs and encrypted files.”  She looked from Lance to Keith, one eyebrow quirked in a question. “Does Red know what's going on?” When they both nodded she sighed again and poked Lance in the stomach.  “That means you're helping me, I guess. Get out of your armor and meet me in Red's hanger as soon as you can.”

Fifteen minutes later they were climbing the ramp to Red's cockpit, Lance's strides deliberately shortened to match Pidge's pace.  “So, ummm, what am I supposed to call you?” she asked, ducking her head to try and hide the embarrassed flush.

He laughed softly.  “Pidge, I know this is weird, but it's me.  I really am Keith, the Red Paladin, the sword to your shield, et cetera.”  His lips twisted. “Besides, imagine how this feels from my perspective! I've got Lance's gangly limbs, annoying voice, and if I have to go to the bathroom I'll be touching Lance's -”

“Okay, okay, that's quite enough!” Pidge cried, slapping a hand over his mouth.  Their eyes met and she started to giggle. “You've convinced me. Keith.”

“Good.”  He grinned at her.  “Now let's get to work and figure this out.  I want my own body back.”

It took nearly three hours before Pidge found the first real clue in one of the files that was automatically encrypted while a Lion was on a mission.  It was a graph that reminded her of a standard spectrometer reading, only this one wasn't about a substance's elemental composition. It was a measure of the different varieties of quintessence that Red had encountered on the mission.  There was one spike on the graph, substantially larger than any other, and it registered as a malevolent purple color.

It was the same color they associated with Shiro's cybernetic arm.

“Chalk up one point for the Druid theory,” Keith (Lance?) said as they studied the graph.

“It doesn't help us very much, though,” Pidge replied, scratching behind an ear.  She rolled her shoulders in an effort to dispel some of the tension there, jumping when a pair of hands started to knead the muscles.  The hands were larger, but the motion – the way the thumbs dug in on either side of her spine – was definitely Keith's back rub technique.  She shot to her feet and moved away from him, carefully keeping her flame-red face averted. “Let's. . . Uh. . . I think I should sleep on this; maybe some solution will come to me.”  She finally looked up from under her lashes. “I know you want out of an uncomfortable situation, but you might need to a bit more patient.”

Lance (Keith?) shrugged and smiled.  “I wasn't expecting an immediate solution,” he finally said after studying her face for an almost interminable time.  “Not saying it wouldn't have been nice, but I was prepared to wait.” He moved to her side and laid a hand between her shoulder blades, guiding her out of the cockpit.  “And I have to agree that a good night's sleep sounds like the best idea I've heard all day.”

****~**~**~**~**~****

“Damn, this is just. . .”  Hunk paused, looking his best friend up and down as they walked towards the Blue Lion's hanger.  Well, sort of his best friend. It was kind of hard to tell at the moment, though. “This is really freaking me out,” he finally concluded, sighing and massaging his temples.

“How the hell do you think I feel?”  It was Keith's voice that spoke, but unmistakably Lance's attitude.  “I'm four inches shorter than I should be, pale as death, and I have a mullet.  A MULLET, Hunk!” He tugged at the longest strands of hair against his neck. “This is. . .  I mean. . .” He dropped his face into his hands. “My image is in tatters.”

Hunk laughed.  “What image, exactly?  Nobody on this ship is fooled by your 'image' anymore, so unless you're worried about the next Galra fleet we fight I think you'll be okay.”  He reached out and clapped a hand on Keith's (Lances's?) shoulder. “Look, you know as well as I do that if anybody can figure out what happened and fix it it's Pidge.  And you know Coran will take an interest since quintessence was involved. So please, just relax.” The Yellow Paladin grinned. “You will not have a mullet forever.”

“I've had it for almost four hours.  That's close enough to forever to me.”

“You're being over-dramatic.  As usual.”

Lance (Keith?) glared at him.  “Not. Possible.”

They arrived at their destination and Hunk let out an inaudible sigh of relief when Blue powered up as soon as they entered the hanger.  He knew what had driven Lance here, despite the lateness of the hour; the worry that his Lion wouldn't recognize him inside someone else's body.  But with that question already answered Hunk felt safe in leaving his friend to his own devices to work out whatever was on his mind. “I know you need this right now,” he said, watching his companion out of the corner of his eye.  “But don't stay here too late; a decent night's sleep would probably be the most beneficial thing right now.”

“I know, I know.  Don't badger me, Mom.”  A bright smile took all of the sting out of the comment, even if it looked a little odd on Keith's face.

First thing the next morning Hunk made his way to the Red Lion's hanger, hoping to beat Pidge there.  He was fairly certain that they stood a better chance of figuring out what had happened if they worked together, and Allura had given her okay to the plan, taking him off of some of his other duties to focus on this situation.  He was actually looking forward to the opportunity to enhance his knowledge of the Lions' inner workings, a subject that Pidge was already an expert on. He needed to catch up if he wanted to keep his status as chief engineer and mechanic.

When he got to his destination he was disappointed, but not really surprised, to see Pidge already there and working.  Her eyes were red-rimmed, a surefire sign of lack of sleep. “Please tell me you didn't sleep here, or worse stay up all night,” he said as approached the Lion's left forepaw.

Pidge grunted in response and buried her head inside the open access panel on the paw, dragging a connection cord with her.  After about two minutes she emerged with messed up hair and her patented glare. “I neither slept here nor stayed up all night,” she replied.  “I may not have slept a whole lot, but I slept.” She plugged the other end of the connection cord into her portable workstation and five holoscreens immediately opened, all full of information from the Red Lion's internal sensors.  “Keith, on the other hand, was in Red's cockpit all night long,” she went on with a huff. “I kicked him out so I could get some actual work done, and I hope he went to bed but knowing him he's on the training deck trying to figure out how to fight with Lance's body.”

“Lance was with Blue all night,” Hunk put in.  “I checked the cameras when I first got up and saw him stumble out of the hanger.  He went straight to bed, I have no doubt.”

Pidge chuckled.  “No doubt.” She glanced sidelong at Hunk.  “How. . . How's he taking all of this?”

“About like you'd expect.  Complaining about Keith's hair and height while having a breakdown on the inside.  I think knowing Blue recognized him helped, but it's not a fix, is it?”

“No, not really,” Pidge responded with a shake of her head.  “I'm hoping something will come out of all of this,” she concluded, gesturing to the screens that surrounded the pair of them.

Hunk looked at all of the screens.  “What do you think you might find in the internal sensors?”

Pidge shrugged.  “Some disparity. Some . . . contradiction from the external logs.”  She frowned at one of the screens and quickly closed it. “Unfortunately as things stand right now I have no clue what caused this and even less about how to fix it.”  Her brows drew together in a fierce look of determination. “And I will fix this.”

“Hmmm, I guess that crush you have on Keith has gotten a bit bigger.”

She started and knocked the work station askew, causing the four remaining screens to waver.  “What? Crush? What's that supposed to mean?”

With a sigh Hunk sat beside her.  “A crush usually means feelings of attraction and the desire to explore romantic possibilities with someone.  And that is definitely how you feel about Keith. So you're extra determined to fix this because you need to help him, and you're not about to confess your feelings for him while looking at Lance's face.”

Silence reigned in the hanger, going on for so long that he started to think Pidge would never respond.  But when he glanced at her he saw that her face was bright red and her eyes were suspiciously shiny. “You're a little too perceptive for your own good, Hunk,” she whispered with half of a laugh.  “Who else knows?”

“Nobody, as far as I can tell.”

“Good.  Let's keep it that way.”  She turned back to the holoscreens surrounding them.  “Now you definitely have to help me.” She swiped on one screen and enlarged a file, studying it in silence for a moment.  “The timestamp on this file matches the external recording of the quintessence surge, but the reading is completely different.  I'm wondering if passing through Red's skin somehow had an unintended effect on the spell.”

“Unintended in what way?” Hunk asked, leaning closer and studying what looked like a standard spectrometer reading.  “It all looks pretty normal to me.”

Pidge switched to another file; the timestamp showed that it was recorded immediately before the quintessence surge.  “Well, this is all really speculation, but I think the spell was meant to swap the consciousness of the Druid casting it with whatever Lion was encountered.  Red, in this case. A Druid gaining access to, and control over, one of the Lions would have been a disaster.”

“So swapping two other consciousnesses was definitely not in the cards.”  He leaned back against the paw behind them and stared up at Red's chest. “Do you think this is the cause of that foreign quintessence that Coran detected in Lance and Keith?”

“Probably.  Coran did say it was just sort of sitting there, not really doing anything.  If this was what the spell was meant to do I think it'd be more active. It'd be circulating in their bodies to maintain the spell, at the very least.”  She rubbed a hand on Red's paw, hearing a comforting growl in response. “I wish I could be sure that simply purging them of that quintessence would fix this, but it's probably much more complicated.”

Hunk laughed.  “And I'm sure that their negative emotions about the situation don't help.”

“When do their negative emotions ever help?”  She chuckled lightly, but then the laughter died away and she looked thoughtful.  “What if there's no solution to this?” she asked. “What if all we can do is wait and see what happens?

“I don't think it'll come to that,” was the Yellow Paladin's reply.  “I have faith that we'll figure something out, but first we should probably cleanse Red of whatever is left in her systems from that surge.”  Another thought occurred to him. “And to be on the safe side we should check over Blue; it's entirely possible that all of this was transmitted over the bond and is having an impact on her as well.”

It took nearly five hours to get both Lions completely cleansed from the foreign quintessence but that was mainly because Lance and Keith showed up about halfway through and wreaked havoc on the entire process.  It took Pidge threatening the pair of them with a variety of grievous bodily harm before they left. Her sigh of relief after their departure came out as more of a snort.

“I'm guessing you have no plans to confess your crush to Keith anytime soon?” Hunk asked once the pair of them were alone again.

“Not as long as he's acting like such an ass.”

****~**~**~**~**~****

“I think we've officially run out of options,” Pidge told the gathered team.  “We have to try and purge that quintessence out of them.” She pushed a hand through her hair.  “There's a chance it'll leave them permanently in each other's bodies, but at this point we don't really have a choice but to risk it.”

“Are you kidding me?  You want to possibly permanently stick me with the mullet?”

Pidge resisted the urge to punch Lance in the stomach since it would mean actually punching Keith's body.  “Look, I know it's not ideal, but everything that Hunk and I have discovered indicates that this is your best chance, despite the risk.”  She looked at Allura, who gave a tiny nod. “But it's up to the two of you; no one is going to force you.”

“It's been three days already, with no hint that this is simply going to wear off,” Keith commented.  “I say we do it.”

“Are you sure, Keith?” Shiro asked, glancing between the Red and Blue Paladins.  When Keith nodded he turned to Lance. “You both have to agree to this.”

The uncertain, hesitant expression looked out of place on Keith's face, but then he nodded.  “I agree,” Lance said, determined. “I don't like the possible side effect of this, but it has to be done.”  The two of them exchanged a glance. “Let's do it,” they stated together.

“Okay, but we're going to approach this as carefully as possible,” Allura put in, frowning slightly.  “That means using the medical pods and monitoring both of your vital signs closely. Coran?”

The male Altean stepped forward.  “It'll take me at least an hour to re-calibrate the pods, using the elemental signature that Pidge and Hunk found.”  He stared at Lance and Keith. “In that time I want the two of you to focus on being as relaxed as possible. If you're tense it'll make this process harder, possibly even painful.”

“Painful?” Lance yelped before Hunk stepped forward and began to steer him out of the room.

“I'll leave Keith to you,” he told Pidge, who half-heartedly glared at him in return.

She watched Coran for a moment as he began his work on the pods, then turned to Keith, still feeling the shock of him inside Lance's body.  “Well, you heard the Altean. Let's get out of here.”

Keith obediently followed her out of the room, not speaking until she turned away from the training deck.  “I thought we could -”

“Nope,” Pidge commanded, grabbing onto an elbow.  “Coran said relax, not work yourself into a state of exhaustion.  We're going to the meditation room.”

Keith groaned, sounding altogether too much like Lance.  “I hate meditation,” he whined. “If I have to do it can't I at least be in my own quarters where I'll be more comfortable?”

Pidge looked at him dubiously, but ended up nodding.  “As long as you promise to actually do the relaxation exercises I don't care where we do them, so lead the way.”

The quarters they ended up in were indelibly stamped with Keith's personality.  His clothes were haphazardly strewn on almost every flat surface in the room but his weapons were spotless and carefully organized.  His long-bladed knife was hanging on the wall in a purpose-built bracket, and his bayard was on the table beside the bed, within easy reach of a sleeping Paladin.  Pidge kept hers in the same spot.

“Okay, so how do you want to do this?” she asked him as she shoved a pair of pants off of the room's only chair and then sat.  “If you want I can leave; I don't have to be involved in this.”

“No, stay, please.  I think being by myself might make me more nervous, which would kind of defeat this relaxation thing.”  He smiled at her before flopping down on the bed. “Can we just. . . talk? About anything but this situation?  I'd like to forget, even if just for a little while.”

“I guess,” she replied with a hint on uncertainty.  “I could use a break too, I suppose. It's pretty much all I've been thinking about and working on for the  last few days.” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “That's an awfully serious expression for someone who's looking to forget a few things.  Not to mention an awfully serious expression for Lance's face.” She waited a few moments longer. “Just tell me whatever is on your mind.”

“I, uh. . .  Well, you know how you've spent quite a bit of time with Red over the last few days?”  When she nodded Keith continued. “Your bond with her has strengthened as a result of all of this, which means I'm now a bit more. . . aware of you, and. . .”  His voice trailed off and a flush stole up his cheeks.

“Wow, I never thought I'd see Lance's face blushing!” Pidge exclaimed, moving to sit beside him on the bed.  “It's fascinating, in a strange way.” Then her eyes widened at the implication of Keith's statement sank in.  “You. . . you. . .” She sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. “You're more 'aware' of me. What does that mean, exactly?”

“It means that I know you, well, you like me,” he replied, meeting her eyes.  “And I have to say it's a very good thing you do, because I've been pretty crazy about you for a while.”

Pidge's brain froze on the indignant response she wanted to make.  “You're crazy about me?”

He nodded.  “I am, and with your permission I'd very much like to kiss you.”

He leaned in but Pidge pressed two fingers to his lips.  “I'm not sure if I'm willing to kiss Lance's mouth, just so you know.”

“Close your eyes and you'll never even know.”  And he leaned close enough to bring their lips together, the touch so gentle it might almost have been her imagination.

There was a sudden rush of sound, as if all of the air was being sucked out of the room, and it was followed by a warmth like a miniature sun growing in the room.  The kiss ended, but Pidge kept her eyes closed a little bit longer.

“Ummm, Pidge?  What's going on?”

Her eyes flew open and she looked into Lance's eyes, seeing the Blue Paladin's personality in them as clear as day.  She made a strangled sound of shock and flew off the bed. “It's. . . I. . .” And with a shake of her head she ran out of the room and down the corridor towards where she knew Hunk would be with Keith.

Who met Pidge when she was halfway there, catching her as she threw herself into his arms.  “Please tell me you're Keith on the inside as well,” she whispered into an ear as she hugged him tight.

“I am.  And I never thought I'd have cause to thank spending a few days in Lance's body.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Pidge ship zine _Carnations_.
> 
> I am not going to lie: I was very disappointed in how everything with that zine worked out. This fic (which is one of my best, I think) was included in the OT3 section of the zine instead of with the other Kidge fics. I didn't mention it at the time because by then I was pretty fed up with the whole process and just kind of wanted to forget the whole thing. But I still wanted to share this with the rest of the fandom so here you go!


End file.
